If you are in the business of renovating homes, Baltimore provides not only opportunities to donate used building materials—thereby saving them from ending up in a landfill, but also to purchase used building materials at reasonable prices. Four organizations are listed below, along with their website addresses, that provide options both in terms of donation and purchase.
Community Forklift (https://communityforklift.org/about-us/who-we-are/)
“Community Forklift is a nonprofit reuse center for home improvement supplies. We pick up donations of unwanted and salvaged building materials throughout the metro DC region. Then, we make the building materials available to the public at low cost, and provide vintage materials for restoring old homes.”
Habitat Chesapeake ReStores (https://www.habitat.org/restores/donate-goods)
“Habitat ReStores are home improvement stores that accept small and large donations of new or gently used furniture, appliances, housewares, building materials and more. Proceeds from the sales of these items help Habitat’s work in your community and around the world.”
Second Chance (https://www.secondchanceinc.org/about-us/)
“We deconstruct buildings and homes, salvage usable materials and make those available to the public through our 200,000 square feet of retail space. With the revenue generated, we provide job training and workforce development for those with employment obstacles in the Baltimore region.”
The Loading Dock (http://www.loadingdock.org/about_quickfacts/index.html)
“We increase the supply and use of affordable building materials for housing and community improvement by redirecting landfill-bound, reusable materials into productive use.”
Baltimore County has made the recycling of used building materials particularly user-friendly. It has partnered with the Loading Dock to accept reusable building materials at two of its facilities: The Eastern Sanitary Landfill in White Marsh and the Central Acceptance Facility in Cockeysville. The County’s recycling website provides of list of what building materials are considered acceptable for recycling:
https://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/publicworks/recycling/loadingdock.html
